Magic of Arteria Volume 1. Reunion Arc

Prologue.

---

The beginning of the 24^th century changed the dynamics of the galaxies; one change, large enough to bring new opportunities to the dying species, living in the tiny, collapsing world of Earth. It was massive enough to attract scheming politicians, greedy businessmen, and the people at the top, taking it to their advantage.

 

It could have been the change that would have shed light onto the poor, dying species, but instead, it became the cause of new wars. A war that raged for decades, bringing the deaths of millions to billions; that change was the birth of the phenomena we, formerly homo sapiens, call Magic.

 

***

 

Holding a rifle in my hand, I stared at several ships, dark and fast, sailing through the heavy waters at speeds faster than a sedan on the ground; these ships were dark, dimmer than matte black at night. They blended well into the night skies; they move like submarines, half-submerged into the clear ocean.

 

These ships were of nothing the past could imagine, a single clear image of one doesn’t exist on the internet; their mass was compressed, enough for our radars to almost ignore them. The only ship that comes close to them, and we speculate to belong to were the ones from the international terrorist organization. RSA (Rina Selva Andu).

 

Rina Selva Andu, a terrorist organization highly-feared among countries they terrorize, like ISIS of the past, took several tiny countries with brute force; challenging the limits of most politicians, once a rebel group turned into a highly-feared organization, they hailed from the Eastern Country of Suburn.

 

The organization isn’t well-known among the public, even I never heard of the organization and most likely, would never hear of it had I not enlisted into the military.

 

It sounds suspicious, right? In normal cases, an organization highly-feared would be famous in the outside world. It should be, had the world powers not suppress all kinds of news about it under the reasoning: reducing panic among the public, and suppression of recruitments.

 

“Angelica, move your crosshair a little bit to the left. In a minute, the wind speeds should drop enough for the spell to pass through,” a woman’s voice entered my right ear.

 

There should be no reason for me to aim in the ocean unless chemicals exist there, but that would be too strange; in all honesty, why am I even bothering, instructions are instructions. If it fails, it wouldn’t be my fault anyway.

 

Taking a deep breath, I moved the rifle off to the left, aligning the crosshair to what seemed to be the edge of the ship, which is the one at the very center of their formation.

 

“What, are you doubting my decision? How about you zoom a little closer to the ship, you will be grateful to me,” she said.

 

Curiosity ran to my mind, I listened to what she had said; moving the rifle back to its original position, adjusting the zoom to its maximum before chills ran to my spines, my hands shook for a second.

 

The entire ship wasn’t painted, but instead, it was made out of mirrors; ones strong enough to reflect most light that attempts to enter it. I shuddered. The entire ship was the nightmare of the spell I was about to cast, a spell that behaves similarly to light.

 

“You understand now, took you long enough. Are you really my successor, or a fake?” her voice, full of pride echoed within the room.

 

Her words sounded very rude, but I am unable to refute her. In comparison to me, she was the current Queen of the Arteria family while I was only the successor to her. I glimpsed out of the scope, peeked at the woman beside me, sighing.

 

Her blue hair fluttered up in the air, she was dressed in a bright-blue dress that shouldn’t belong to the battlefield. A beauty she was, equivalent to Her Majesty of the Westerns; shrouded by an aura of pride, she stood firm staring at the ocean with a binocular.

 

I felt inferior to her, not just in beauty, but in influence and knowledge, even with all of my businesses, her influence and knowledge is still something I could only dream of.

 

Her name was enough to make all the rich tremble in fear, a single joke of hers could make the governments of many shudder; I wonder, how many years would it take for me to reach her level? Is it dozens, or hundreds of years?

 

As I was staring at her, she took her binoculars off, looking at me with a smug: “What, have you fallen in love with me already? That’s not good, you little brat!”

 

I directed my attention back towards the rifle, concentrating on the ships in the distance as I replied, annoyed inside: “Who would love a stupid person like you?”

 

All of a sudden, a soft hand rubbed my head, unlike the others, it was a hand that handed me security, reassurance. Her voice whispered into my ear as I focused on the targets, “Plenty of people, of course. About a few hundred million, all of which I rejected.”

 

She had rubbed the annoyance inside my heart, adding oil to the flames and watching it burn more. I was super annoyed, unconsciously I stomped on her foot in anger.

 

“A few hundred million, your face. Aren’t those only your fantasies?” I responded, holding the rifle tightly.

 

The speeds of the ships never changed, they kept sailing through the rough and heavy waters with ease. It was like a bumper car, though it won’t knock back when bumping into the waters. I was amazed by how far their technology has reached.

 

“I, who is named the Queen of the World, having only a few suitors. You really make me laugh, my little daughter,” she chuckled.

 

“Enough of those empty stories, let’s finish this already. I am too tired to listen to your stories, I want to head home now!” I said before a sigh replied.

 

“Fine, let’s get back to business then. In short of fifteen seconds, the target will enter the estimated range of fire of the spell. And from my estimates, the center ship should be releasing their payload ten seconds after entering your range.”

 

“In total, that should give you about eight seconds to act, which should be more than enough for you to strike all of them down. If I am correct, right?” she said.

 

Eight seconds, it should be more than enough. The spell should be already prepared, at most I would need only two seconds to fire it, that is if the conditions are proper and if I don’t mess up midway, otherwise, ten seconds would be far from enough.

 

With my finger on the trigger, I looked at the target in complete focus, waiting for the signal to sound when, all of a sudden, a click sound echoed within the room. It wasn’t the click sound I was waiting for, but my body had already reacted out of instincts, pulling the trigger to the fullest.

 

It was at that moment when I realized, I had messed up everything. A human error, but there was nothing I could do anymore but watch everything break apart.

 

A tiny orb had already sat at the end of the rifle, growing in size as the room grew colder. It felt like Neptune, or maybe even more than Neptune. My hand was covered in frost, I couldn’t move my body, my heart had stopped beating.

 

I trembled, staring at the orb as it grew in size before a second later, the orb turned into a beam of light. It was like the powers of a God, firing straight towards the ships and like the sun soaring at night, it shone brightly under the night sky. Only to fade in the air.

 

A few seconds passed by, we anticipated a response from the spell but nothing returned. Had I messed up, was the end sequence corrupted? There shouldn’t be a single problem with the spell, what happened to it?

 

Sweat dripped from my forehead, peeking back to the scope of the rifle before all of a sudden, a bright white blast covered my sight. The earth had trembled, it sounded like the hammers of war striking down onto the enemy.

 

I had realized at that moment, there was no mistake. It was only delayed; the strongest Uno spell had been fired for the first time in its existence, the Uno spell: the Devil’s Cry.